Full cycles of the Life and Passion of Christ are rarely found in manuscript

illumination.121 The Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ in the Bible ofAvila is the

most complete extant example of this type of cycle created during the Romanesque

period in Spain. Nevertheless, there are a number of examples of certain parts of the

Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ that can be found in other mediums.

 The first scene on folio CCCXXIII r is the Baptism of Christ (Fig. 17). In the

history of manuscript illumination in 12th century Spain this is the only surviving

example of the Early Christian traditional iconography of the Baptism of Christ, which

depicts the mature Christ and John the Baptist. The iconography found in the Bible of

Avila was already established in Italy in the 6th century.122 This tradition of iconography

is an example of the survival or the revival of a type of Early Christian iconography.123

One of the surviving examples of a Baptism of Christ comes from a capital that shows an

acute Italian influence from the church of Santa Maria de l'Estany (Barcelona) dated to






121 JOaquin Yarza Luaces, Iconograpia de la M~iniatura Ca;stellano-Leonesa~11~~11~~1 de los Siglos
Xly XII, Madrid: Universidad Complutense, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, 1973, pp. 28-
29.

122 Robin Margaret Jensen, Understanding Early Christian Art, New York: Routledge,
2000, pp. 118-119, mentions the mosaic dome medallion in the Orthodox Baptistery in
Ravenna dated to the mid-sixth century, as one of the earliest examples of the Baptism of
Christ where Christ appears as a mature man, inside the river Jordan.

123 Another tradition of the Baptism of Christ in Spanish manuscript illumination was
very different from this early Christian type of iconography. In the Beatus of Gerona, for
example, in fol. 189 (see Mireille, Mentre Illuminated Ma'~nuscripts of2~edieval Spain,
London, 1996, Fig. 40, Beatus of Gerona fol. 189) the Baptism of Christ takes place in
the juncture of the river Jordan, but Christ is being baptized inside a baptismal font, and
John the Baptist is submerging a young Christ inside. In this example, and others of a
later time, the dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit is depicted above Christ.